Market access

El 01 de marzo de 2001 el Órgano de Apelación hizo público el informe sobre el caso “Communidades Europeas - Derechos antidumping sobre las importaciones de ropa de cama de algodón originarias de la India”.

El 19 de agosto de 2016 la OMC hizo público el informe del Grupo especial sobre el caso “Federación de Rusia - Medidas relativas a la importación de porcinos vivos carne de porcino y otros productos de porcino procedentes de la Unión Europea”.

On 5 March 2002 India requested consultations with the EC concerning the conditions under which the EC accords tariff preferences to developing countries under its current scheme of generalized tariff preferences (“GSP scheme”). India presented this request pursuant to Article 4 of the DSU Article XXIII:1 of the GATT 1994 and paragraph 4(b) of the so-called Enabling Clause. India considered that the tariff preferences accorded by the EC under the special arrangements (i) for combating drug production and trafficking and (ii) for the protection of labour rights and the environment create undue difficulties for India’s exports to the EC including for those under the general arrangements of the EC’s GSP scheme and nullify or impair the benefits accruing to India under the most favoured nation provisions of Article I:1 of the GATT 1994 and paragraphs 2(a) 3(a) and 3(c) of the Enabling Clause. In India’s view the conditions under which the EC accorded tariff preferences under the special arrangements could not be reconciled with the requirements provided in paragraphs 2(a) 3(a) and 3(c) of the Enabling Clause.

On 20 September 2011 the United States requested consultations with China concerning China's measures imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on broiler products from the United States.

On 27 September 2002 Australia and Brazil requested consultations with the European Communities concerning the export subsidies provided by the EC in the framework of its Common Organisation of the Market for the sugar sector. The requests concerned Council Regulation (EC) No. 1260/2001 of 19 June 2001 on the EC’s common organization of the markets in the sugar sector and all other legislation regulations administrative policies and other instruments relating to the EC regime for sugar and sugar containing products including the rules adopted pursuant to the procedure referred to in Article 42(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1260/2001 and any other provision related thereto. On 14 March 2003 Thailand requested consultations with the European Communities on the same matter.

El 29 de marzo de 2016 la OMC hizo público el informe del Grupo especial sobre el caso “Unión Europea - Medidas antidumping sobre el biodiésel procedente de la Argentina”.

El 06 de abril de 1999 la OMC hizo público el informe del Grupo especial sobre el caso “India - Restricciones cuantitativas a las importaciones de productos agrícolas textiles e industriales”.

El grupo especial de solución de diferencias de la OMC publicó el 6 de julio de 2017 un informe sobre el asunto “Unión Europea — Medidas compensatorias sobre determinado tereftalato de polietileno procedente del Pakistán” (DS486)

This paper assembles detailed information on the market access provisions in trade in goods contained in 192 active regional trade agreements (RTAs) notified to the WTO as of November 2010. Although market access provisions in trade in goods in RTAs have been addressed in a number of studies much of this work has been limited to subsets of RTAs particularly plurilateral RTAs involving three or more parties. The goal of the current study is to expand beyond the more commonly studied RTAs and to include all RTAs notified to the WTO for which data are available. This task has been facilitated by the recent Transparency Mechanism for RTAs (TM) adopted in 2006 that provides the basis for the systematic provision of detailed tariff and trade data by WTO Members engaged in RTAs. This information has been supplemented by other public sources of data where available. A number of trends are evident. While a majority of RTAs result in a reasonably high degree of liberalization overall (with developing countries often liberalizing as much or more than developed countries) liberalization is not uniform across products or RTA parties. In some RTAs the degree of iberalization appears to be a negotiated outcome depending on the RTA partner. Agricultural goods continue to be subject to lower levels of liberalization frequent product exclusions and systematic protection in some RTAs regardless of the RTA partner's comparative advantage. Nonetheless a lower level of ambition in some RTAs is tempered by a commitment to negotiate further concessions or expand upon the RTA's scope at some future point: more than half the RTAs analysed contain such a commitment. Much has been written about the potential for the multilateralization of commitments undertaken in RTAs. While there may be scope for positive externalities in terms of regulatory convergence particularly with regard to services liberalization undertaken in RTAs there is less evidence in this study to suggest that increased market access in merchandise goods leads to a more favourable trading environment for third parties. Continuing constructive engagement by WTO Members in the Transparency Mechanism through the provision of data timely notifications and submission of implementation reports will increase the availability of tariff and trade liberalization data thus facilitating further examination of the topics highlighted in the study as worthy of future research.